The female rager got to him first. Like all ragers, she was very fast and very aggressive, and she didn't come at him mindlessly, as most zombies did; ragers were capable of using weapons and fighting with intelligence. This one didn't have a weapon, but she was very big, bigger than Stu, and she seemed to be more or less intact. Bloody, matted hair hung over her face, and her skin had that leprous, diseased look that all zombies had, but nothing seemed to have rotted off yet, and her muscles obviously still worked, because she had twisted that metal door open as though it were made of rubber.
She galloped at him like a grizzly bear, looking to tackle him and tear him to shreds. Stu waited for her approach, then whirled the alien chainsaw around, intending to cut her head off and end this as quickly as possible. She wasn't the only threat; there were still a handful of other zombies left in the room, and the giant glowie was still standing there, menacingly.
He swung the chainsaw, but she ducked beneath it, then caught his wrist and held it as he came around on the backswing. The two of them stood there for a moment, struggling over control of the chainsaw, which was flashing like an arc welder and shooting sparks all over the room. The rager screamed in his face.
Finally, Stu's strength won out, and he managed to shake her free, kicking her to one side. Before he could finish her off, however, another zombie, a Level 4, came rushing at him, and he was forced to stop and kill it before returning his attention to her. By then she had recovered her balance and thrown herself at him again, and this time she was able to knock the chainsaw out of his hands. It went spinning across the floor, its blade still active, while Stu slipped on the slick, bloodstained floor, falling to one knee.
Before he could react, the rager grabbed him by the back of the neck and hoisted him off the floor, holding him by the scruff as though he were a kitten. Then she pulled him close, opened her mouth, and tried to bite him.
Just as she was about to sink her teeth into his trapezius, however, another zombie, crawling along on its belly and also hoping to take a bite out of him, grabbed him by the leg and pulled him down. He somehow managed to land neatly on the floor, with the rager in front of him and the other zombie behind him. He planted his feet and pushed-punched the rager as hard as he could, which was pretty hard; she went flying halfway across the room. Then he turned around and dealt with the other zombie, which still had a hold of his pant leg but which had not yet bitten him; he kicked it in the head hard enough to crack its spine and kill it.
Level 1 Zombie defeated!
He ran to the still-running chainsaw, picking it up just as the glowie came stomping towards him. Shielding his eyes from its intense light, he stood up and, simply in an effort to keep it at bay, jabbed it in the abdomen with the chainsaw.
But he had forgotten that glowies were flammable. As soon as the chainsaw made contact with its body, a roiling mass of flame erupted out of it, like a gas fire, sweeping over Stu's face and igniting the chainsaw blade. The blade started spitting fire all over the room.
Burned and blinded by the flames -- and wishing now that he had purchased that damn Firewalker skill -- Stu stumbled away from the glowie. He couldn't see; the flames had practically melted his face. It was incredibly painful, but he was so full of adrenaline, and so flush with energy from having gone up two levels in the last few minutes, that he was somehow able to shake it off. His vision gradually returned, though it was imperfect; everything seemed to be covered in a black fog, which even his Night Vision skill couldn't penetrate.
He could see movement, however, and he could see irruptions of flickering light -- fires had broken out all around the room. And he could see the chainsaw, too, which was also blazing, the glowie's combustible blood flicking from its chain. The glowie itself, only slightly inconvenienced by Stu's attack, had merely staggered back a few steps.
Something big -- it could only be the rager -- was now bounding toward him. It was coming at him so quickly that he had no time to retreat; all he could do was swing the chainsaw around to try to protect himself. The blade caught on the rager's camouflage jumpsuit, ripping off a sleeve and totally incinerating it, but also throwing her off balance, as the chainsaw pulled her to one side. Stu, struggling to control the saw, was thrown off balance as well, but he was able to rip it free of her clothing and swing it back at her. The long blade slipped under her arm and into her torso. She screamed -- whether from pain or frustration he had no idea -- but now that he had the advantage Stu was not about to let up. Using the flaming chainsaw like a scythe, he sawed through her entire body, cutting her completely in half, the blood spurting out of her like a fountain. Her top half, which consisted of her head, arms, and part of her torso, separated from her bottom half and fell to the floor, while her legs remained upright for a moment or two before buckling and falling over.
But she wasn't dead. Her top half was still screaming, her arms still desperately trying to grab for him. Horrified, he jammed the tip of the chainsaw into her neck, silencing her. Level 7 Rager defeated!Level Up! 35-36Gained 2 SP!Critical Bonus! Gained 1 SP!
There were three zombies left in the room now -- a Level 5 Zombie, a Level 8 Zombie, and the Level 9 Glowie. The Level 5 was not really a threat; Stu had lopped off one of its arms earlier, and it was on fire, anyway, wandering blindly around the room. The Level 8, on the other hand, was a monstrous bearded man with a big belly, and was even taller than the female rager he had just killed -- he must have been around six-foot-five. He was wearing a filthy chef's apron, covered in blood and grime; perhaps he had been a cook here when it was a military base.
Although big and frightening to look at -- some of the skin on his face had sloughed off, revealing the bone underneath -- he was still just an ordinary zombie, albeit a rather high-level one. Stu picked up an odd, cylindrical object that looked like it might have been some kind of large battery -- the room was littered with this junk -- and threw it at the zombie's face, then used his superior speed to rush up to it and swing the chainsaw at its head before it knew what was happening. Unfortunately he missed its neck -- the chainsaw caught it just above the ear instead, and the impact sent it sprawling. Quickly, before it could recover, Stu pressed the attack, slicing off its hand. It slipped and stumbled; Stu grabbed its collar with one arm and hurled it into the other zombie, the one that was on fire. Both of them went down in a burning heap.
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Level 5 Zombie defeated!Level 8 Zombie defeated!Critical Bonus! Gained 2 SP!
The fires were producing a noxious smoke which was filling the room, and the monitor built into the wall was flashing a new message now: "Fuel oxidation detected! Suppression systems offline! Cannot connect to main computer!" The message, like the others, was written in those alien squiggles that he shouldn't have been able to understand, but which he did, instinctively.
The final zombie, the glowie, now stepped forward to menace him. It was still leaking fire-droplets out of the wound Stu had given it, but it did not seem particularly bothered by the injury. It started for him, its green glow suddenly intensifying.
Stu didn't want to risk getting blasted with more of the monster's bloody flames, so he set the chainsaw down and looked around for another weapon he might use. There wasn't really anything available, though, so, reluctantly, he put up his fists, just as the glowie came staggering at him. He gave it a right hook.
If Stu had been an ordinary man, the punch probably wouldn't have done much of anything, but with his enhanced strength, the blow was enough to topple the glowie, and it careened into the nearest wall, more flaming blood flying out of its gut. While it was still unsteady, Stu raced up to it, knocked it off its feet, and stomped on the back of its head with as much force as he could muster, crushing its face into the floor. This created a sort of muffled explosion beneath Stu's boot, as the blood gushed out of its head and ignited, but it was not the inferno that he had feared.
Panting, he stepped away from it, unsure of whether it was dead. But the ICON system quickly confirmed it for him.
Level 9 Glowie defeated!Critical Bonus! Gained 1 SP!Level Up! 36-37Gained 2 SP!New classes available!Access Menu? The smoke was choking him. Coughing, and waving it away from his face, he scooped up the chainsaw and staggered out of the room, climbing over the heaped-up bodies of the zombies he had killed. There did not appear to be any additional zombies in the corridor; had he managed to kill all of those who had entered the room? He could hardly believe it. But his Zombie Radar was no longer buzzing, which meant he must have killed all of the zombies in his immediate vicinity.
He made his way back down the corridor and into the large, cavernous room he had tried sneaking through earlier. His Zombie Radar started going off again, triggered by a single zombie standing by itself about fifty feet away. According to the ICON system it was a Level 2 Shaker, and it wasn't moving, but simply standing there with its head lowered, so he left it alone.
There was only one way forward, through the other corridor which branched off from this larger room. Wary of zombies, he proceeded into this corridor, the chainsaw held at the ready. Like most of the other corridors, this one slanted upwards, and he was so thoroughly covered in blood and gore that he found it difficult to find traction on the metallic floor. His clothes were completely drenched, and the smell, magnified by his Sniffer skill, was horrendous.
How the hell was he supposed to find his way out of here? His Night Vision was still active; there were twelve minutes left on the timer. Was that enough time to escape from this place? He doubted it.
He found another one of those sliding doors and pulled it open, revealing a small and apparently zombie-free room, similar to the one where he spoken with Berly earlier. He decided to take refuge here for a few minutes to figure out what to do next.
The first thing he did was open up the ICON menu. He had gone up four levels and earned twenty-nine skill points over the last few minutes, and not only that, he now had the opportunity to upgrade from the Bulwark class to either the Indomitable class or the Paladin class. He postponed this decision for now, though; he had more important matters to attend to.
He opened up the skill menu and spent three skill points to upgrade his Night Vision skill to level two, which would allow him to see in the dark for a full hour. He quickly activated it, which added fifty minutes to the timer counting down at the edge of his vision. He hoped it would be enough.
He then skimmed through the ICON skills again, looking for something that might help in this situation -- a skill that might help him find a way out, for instance. But there wasn't really anything like that in the list.
Dismissing the ICON menu, he put the chainsaw down and did his best to clean himself up. There was nothing he could do about his clothes, but he was able to wring the blood out of his hair, at least, and to brush off the chunks of bone which were sticking to his shirt. It was pretty gnarly stuff. What would his parents think, seeing him like this, covered in blood and body parts? What would Zach think, or Phil, or Berly? It was almost enough to make him laugh.
He picked up the chainsaw, left the room, and started making his way up the corridor. The ship had crashed into the desert at an angle, so as long as he kept going up, he figured, he ought to eventually find his way to the surface. He proceeded to spend the next twenty minutes wandering through the ship's corridors, looking for a way out, all the while on the lookout for zombies -- he didn't run into any, but he knew there must have been more of them down here, because his Zombie Radar kept pinging.
He finally arrived at a dead end; the corridor he had been following simply terminated. Frustrated, he banged his fist into the wall. There was an echo.
Frowning, he banged on the wall again. Something about the sound it made suggested to him that this might be the outer hull of the ship, and he found himself wondering if he could somehow force his way through it. Was there a skill that might help here? Boulder Smasher might give him the ability to shatter the wall.
But then he remembered that he was carrying an alien chainsaw which was seemingly capable of cutting through just about anything. Could it cut through the hull of the ship?
He decided to give it a try. Activating the chainsaw, he slowly and carefully eased its jagged teeth into the wall.
A shower of sparks exploded in his face. He flinched, but he didn't give up -- he pressed the saw into the wall with progressively more force, until finally the blade, glowing red, punched through the wall. Quickly, he turned off the saw and pulled it out. Peering through the incision he had made -- the wall, too, was red hot -- he saw a darkened landscape, and smelled fresh air.
This was a way out. Cheered, he turned on the chainsaw again and went to work, using it to carve out an opening big enough for him to fit through. It took nearly ten minutes, and it was grueling work; the wall was approximately four or five inches thick, and he had to apply a great deal of force to saw through it. But at last, he was able to a saw out a window-sized opening.
While he was working, however, his Zombie Radar was buzzing -- the sound of the chainsaw ripping through the hull of the ship was obviously attracting undead attention. He hurriedly finished his work, turned off the saw, and stuck his head through the hole he had made. Looking down, he saw that he was about twenty feet off the ground; below him was sand. He couldn't see any of the buildings that had been constructed around the Vroom; they must have been on the opposite side of the ship.
It was a pretty long drop, but Stu didn't hesitate; he climbed through the opening and jumped. He hit the ground hard, but his high defense soaked up most of the impact, and his Regeneration skill healed whatever he might have injured. The sand, however, stuck to his bloody clothes.
He had made it out, somehow. He picked himself up, grinned fiercely, and considered his next move.